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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27335389">Where I Can't Follow</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witchering/pseuds/vvitchering'>vvitchering (Witchering)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Men Crying, Monsters, Not Beta Read, Weird Witcher Biology</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:47:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,449</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27335389</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witchering/pseuds/vvitchering</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt fill for justhereforeskel on tumblr. They asked for hurt/comfort where Geralt thinks Eskel has died on the path.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eskel/Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>128</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Where I Can't Follow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Could be read as either romantic or platonic, depending on how you see their relationship, but I personally see it as romantic :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It’s never a pretty sight when he makes his way through settlements ravaged by the war. As Nilfgaard pushes ever northward, the people suffer. Geralt is used to carnage wrought by mindless creatures, but seeing the violence done by men to men makes his stomach turn. The bright side, if it can be called a bright side, is that with war comes death, and with death come monsters. War can be profitable for witchers, if there is coin left to be paid. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s just north of White Orchard, in one such town left ransacked and bloody by a skirmish. The notice board had been covered in desperate pleas for assistance with the encroaching necrophages, drawn in by the stench of blood and bodies. Ghouls and Algouls looking to make meals of the dead would quickly move on to living prey once the bodies were devoured. A witcher was needed. Geralt holds one of the contract offers in his hand as he talks to the barkeep at the town’s tavern, one of the only buildings left intact. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ghouls were a big problem, yeah, but you’re a bit late. Another witcher beat you to them, though that might be to your benefit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Geralt frowns. He doesn’t often encounter other witchers. They tend to stick to their own territories. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And how is that to my benefit exactly.” Geralt asks, already mentally counting his losses. If this town was already clean, he had a week at least to go before he again encountered a settlement big enough to find work in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The barkeep gives him a slightly sympathetic look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He drove out the flesh eaters, but they still got ‘im in the end. Poisonous bite, you know? Got ‘im right in the neck and it wasn’t long before he stopped moving. Real shame. Wasn’t a bad guy for a witcher, had a bit of good humor about 'im, even with that scarred face of his.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Geralt’s heart speeds up despite himself. There are plenty of witchers with facial scars. It’s not him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He asks the barkeep to describe the good humored witcher. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Brown hair, strong jaw, wide nose, and terrible scars that disfigured the side of his face and twisted his mouth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Geralt’s blood chills in his veins. It’s not possible. No way he’d let something as mundane as a ghoul take him out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Friend of yours?” the barkeep asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Geralt is reeling, still trying to process the information, still finding loopholes, when the man reaches underneath the bar and produces a long thin object, wrapped in a white sheet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was gonna try to sell it, but if he was your kin it’s rightfully yours.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Any doubt Geralt was trying to hold onto vanishes as he pushes aside the sheet. It’s a witcher’s silver sword, adorned with runes as familiar as the ones on his own sword, and altered at the grip to be easier for larger hands to wrap around comfortably. It’s Eskel’s, unquestionably. And no witcher would let his silver out of his sight unless...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where.” Geralt bites out. “Where is he.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The body? Dragged ‘im to the old oak by the hill. Couldn’t spare the labor to bury ‘im, you understand, but it seemed the least we could do for his help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Geralt snatches Eskel’s sword from the bar and leaves as quickly as his feet can carry him. He leaves Roach tethered outside and takes off at a run toward the hill he can see by the edge of the town. It’s a mistake. It has to be. It can’t be, the evidence is in his hands, but it must be. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s a figure resting at the base of a huge oak that looms into view the closer he gets to the hill. It’s not him. It can’t be him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Geralt skids to a stop. Falls to his knees in the dirt, the sword slipping from his hands to rest in front of him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eskel is splattered with dried but still foul smelling blood and his armor is ripped and tattered. The townspeople must have arranged him in the dignified position he laid in; back straight, eyes closed, his steel sword resting on his chest. They’ve laid him to rest like they would a respected warrior, albeit one who they couldn’t spare the resources to bury or burn.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s a high pitched agonized whine coming from somewhere. It takes Geralt a moment to realize it’s coming from his own throat. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew this day would come. No witcher ever died in his bed. But for it to be Eskel, already... They were both still young, by witcher standards, barely men, not even at their first hundred years. And Eskel was gone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Distantly, Geralt registers that he’s crying. He feels lightheaded, like his soul is trying to escape and go somewhere else, like it can’t stand to exist in a reality where Eskel does not. Geralt shuffles forward on his knees until Eskel is close enough to touch. He bends over the fallen witcher and presses his face to his neck, searching for his scent, one last memory to hold onto. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eskel’s lightning storm essence is there still, underneath the putrid stink of necrophage blood. Geralt breaths it in, greedy, desperate, tears dripping from his face to Eskel’s neck and leaving tracks in the filth there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then he hears it. A weak fluttering thud. A heartbeat. Geralt freezes, doesn’t even dare to breath, lest he destroy himself all over again with false hope. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A moment passes. Then another. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The dull thud sounds again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s alive. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The relief is sudden and all consuming. Geralt collapses, curls around Eskel as best he can with all of their armor between them, and lets his sobs shake him apart. Eskel’s heart is slow, slower than even a witcher’s should be, and his chest doesn’t move at all for how shallow his breaths are, but he’s alive. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He’s alive.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Geralt tries to match his breaths to Eskel’s and finds himself slipping into meditation. Eskel is clearly on a deeper level than Geralt has ever experienced, if being handled and transported by humans and having his sword taken from him didn’t draw him out of the trance. Geralt drifts, exhausted by both his grief and his joy, and only stirs when he feels the pillow he’s made of Eskel’s chest shift under him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eskel groans and it’s the most beautiful sound Geralt has ever heard in his life. He sits up in a hurry and snakes a hand under Eskel’s neck to help the larger witcher sit up. His eyes are open and his pupils shrink and grow rapidly as he blinks and reorients himself. His gaze lands on Geralt and he smiles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Could’ve used you here a few days ago.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His voice is rough and dry, but the deep tones are instantly comforting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You so far off your game you let a few ghouls turn you into a chew toy?” Geralt teases.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eskel rolls his eyes and and moves to rotate his shoulder until it pops satisfyingly. He stretches his neck, producing a similar crack, and Geralt catches a glimpse of the half healed bite wound on Eskel’s neck. The barkeep’s story had been true, then. He brings a hand up to smooth down Eskel’s collar and lightly brush over the angry red skin. Eskel hisses and slaps his hand away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gonna scar.” Eskel says gloomily. “I’ll never live it down.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will. You’ll live.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Geralt means it to sound light and humorous, but the look Eskel gives him says his joke didn’t quite land the way he’d hoped. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m fine. It was just a ghoul. Got me in a hell of a shitty spot, but it’ll take more than that to get rid of me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, its just...They told me you died. You looked dead. I couldn’t hear your heart.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eskel reaches up and slides his fingers through Geralt’s hair to cup the back of his head. He pulls lightly, bringing Geralt close enough to knock foreheads with him. It’s an action that they’d done since they were children at Kaer Morhen, their own special way of being close. Geralt can hear Eskel’s heart now, beating away strong and loud in his chest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry I scared you. I really am fine.” Eskel says quietly, rubbing absently at Geralt’s scalp with the hand buried in the white strands. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Geralt leans into the pressure for a moment and then pulls away, clearing his throat after the emotional display.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t fucking do it again.” Geralt says, feigning annoyance. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eskel laughs and Geralt once again has a new favorite sound. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, sure, Wolf. I’ll do my best.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
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